Cutting Pounds Using The Keto Diet

This Guy Dropped 30 Pounds By Eating Fat - Here's How He Did It

From nothingness, the universe was created. From a simple caterpillar, a butterfly emerges. A dorky teen grows up to be a fashion model, or a bodybuilder. The one constant in life is change, and in our new Transformation of the Week series, AskMen is celebrating men who have turned their lives around through dedication, commitment and hard work. Is that you? Email us your story and pictures at askus@askmen.com and you could be featured next week!

Whenever any of us start thinking about cutting weight, it isn’t long before we realize that we’ve got to change the way we eat. The same was true for Redditor brodymitchell, who cut more than 25 pounds in seven months. How? He ate more fat.

OK, it’s not exactly that simple. The 26 year-old took on principles of the ketogenic diet, which is widely known for going light on carbs and high on fat to produce what’s called ketosis, a process by which the body doesn’t have enough glucose (from carbs) for energy and instead turns to burning stored fat.

“I decided that I would try a ketogenic style diet for my cut,” he wrote. “I say ‘style’ because I didn’t really care much about being in ketosis – I quickly discovered that simply by eating fat and avoiding carbs I was much more satiated and able to stay out of the kitchen and snacking throughout the day.”

He described a typical day of meals this way:

3 eggs

4 slices of bacon

1 oz cheddar

Avocado

Lunch:

8 oz ground beef

1 oz cheese

Serving of veggies

Dinner was similar to lunch.

The big thing for him was eating at a caloric deficit – the most basic formula for weight loss. A keto diet incorporates elements of the Atkins diet and Paleo diet, achieved by avoiding grains, fruits, dairy products, sugar and starchy vegetables. Foods that you will see a lot of are eggs, green veggies, meats, olive oil, butter, chicken and fish.

He admitted that he did have a solid strength base before he started keto. He had already been lifting, focusing on strength gains so that he could crush big numbers in the gym. But even after losing the weight, he still saw increases in his strength. Even after dropping 28 pounds, his squat went up 30 pounds from 340 to 370 and his deadlift jumped from 385 pounds to 440.

“For the first six months, I did absolutely no cardio,” he shared in thread. “For the past month and a half, in hopes of losing the final 5 to get to 170, I’ve been incorporating 3-4 days of steady state cardio for 20-minute sessions. On off days I will also do some kind of circuit training with light weights.”

Dieters that jump to keto generally cut carbs to about 10 percent of their diet and eat lots more fat (think avocado and nuts) and protein. While it’s typically not a long-term diet plan – keto is typically best for short and fast weight cut – some dieters do subscribe to a keto or keto-inspired diet year round.